1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for outputting video data generated by extracting an item of video data that is to be viewed from among multiple items of video data, and a purchasing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the use of broadband connections for communication networks has spread, and high-quality TV broadcasting has increased. In addition, digital camcorders have been commoditized. In accordance with such technological changes, users have been dealing with massive amounts of video data. Such data often includes redundant image data for some users, which makes it difficult to search for video data that the users wish to view from among an enormous amount of data that includes redundant data or to promptly understand what the content of the video data is.
As a solution to such a problem, a technique of listing the contents of the image data has been widely used, in which representative images of the video data, called thumbnails, are displayed. In a simple video data displaying method, the leading frame of the video data is extracted, and the data of the leading frame is reduced to create a thumbnail and displayed to show the content of the video data.
The leading frame, however, may not be the most suitable frame to characterize the content of the video data. Then, the user often does not fully understand the content of the video data by viewing the thumbnail image only.
A technology has been therefore suggested, in which a thumbnail is created and displayed by combining the leading frame of the video data with text data (by JP-A 2002-209178 (KOKAI), for example). As time progresses, it tends to become more difficult to understand the content of the video data from the leading frame only, and the technology is meant to solve such a problem. With this technology, a title image including text data such as the title of a program, performers, recording date and time is combined with the image of the leading frame, which realizes a displaying method that solves the problem and enables the user to easily understand the video data.
A technology of analyzing the video data and thereby selecting and displaying an image that characterizes the video image has also been suggested (by JP-A H11-3346 (KOKAI), for example). With this technology, candidates for representative images are extracted by use of a function of detecting where scenes of the video data change, and manually selecting a representative image to display from the candidate images. A thumbnail can be effectively displayed by selecting an image that the user considers as the most suitable from candidates that have been narrowed down to a certain number of images.
Furthermore, a technology of creating a thumbnail in accordance with the type of video data has been suggested (by JP-A H9-219835 (KOKAI), for example). Because different types of video data, such as films, news programs, and TV commercials, have different properties and structures, the video is divided into segments and images are extracted and combined, in different manners according to the types of video data. With such a method, a suitable thumbnail can be created for each type of video data, and the thumbnail can be effectively displayed.
The above technologies, however, have a drawback that images selected or created according to certain judgment criteria only are displayed. For example, JP-A 2002-209178 (KOKAI) discloses a method of displaying a thumbnail image created by combining the image of the leading frame with a title image that includes text data such as the title of the program. In other words, when the same video data is dealt with, the same thumbnail image determined in accordance with the method of the technology is displayed for different users or for different viewing situations. For this reason, images are not created or displayed in consideration of each user's preference or situation.